El Espinar - Alive with street jazz

Once a year streets of the Spanish little town of El Espinar get alive with street jazz rhythms. This year I was lucky enough to be there during the FEMUKA festival (Festival Internacional de Musica en la Calle).

I already posted a couple of photos of the festival in my previous post and will probably do it also in the next couple of posts. There were lots of great photo opportunities in the three days of festival. Many spontaneous jam sessions were also great for shooting some video. This is also something you can look forward to.

Apart from festival activities there was not much more to do in the little town but with really kind locals we met there is definitely a special charm to it. There are a couple of really charming squares and also an imposing old church is also well worth a look. For bird enthusiasts there are countless opportunities to take photos of many storks nesting on rooftops.

Even a nice hostel we stayed in was called Hostal La Cigüeña. In English this would translate to Stork Hostel. It does not offer any luxury but has very neat rooms with large and modern bathrooms. I definitely recommend it.

The town can also offer a perfect base for exploring surrounding cities and villages. Some of them are really stunning. In addition to this there are many natural parks nearby also worth visiting (a local I spoke with in a nearby village even claimed to have seen a wild wolf for a couple of times).
Sadly we didn't have time to enjoy what nature has to offer in that region but were lucky enough to be invited on a one day special tour through some really charming old villages. We really loved it!

I also plan to publish photos of those villages for you to get a few fresh ideas for a vacation in the Spanish region of Castilla y León.

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FEMUKA festival 2012

A couple of days ago I returned from an unexpected trip to Spain. Those of you who also follow Travel Photo Blogging on Facebook might have seen some photos already. If you are not already amongst those few lucky ones you should like our FB page this very moment. This is the way to really stay up to date with our adventures.

Another way to see where are we at the moment is to follow our Instagram feed (look for travel_pb). Instagram is a really cool mobile application for both Android and iOS - I have posted about it here. Try it out and you won't regret it - it is free!

Let me get back to that recent Spanish trip of mine. As luck would have it, a chance to accompany my brother's band (Kar ČeŠ Brass Band) to a street jazz festival near the Spanish town of Segovia came out of nowhere.

This was one of those rare opportunities when you get a chance to combine things you love and don't even have to pay for it. In this case it was a combination of two favorite hobbies of mine - travel and photography. Good music and almost non-stop party were just cherries on top of a very good cake.
I did not think much before I took this chance and I was not sorry for a single moment. It was quite tiring but in the end well worth the effort.

We were stationed in the town of El Espinar which lies 70 kilometres NW of Madrid. Every year a local band called El Puntillo Canalla puts an enormous amount of effort in organizing FEMUKA street jazz festival (Festival de Música en la Calle). This year they did a great job for the 6th time in a row.
Chuso, Julia, Miguel and the rest of the band - thanks again for inviting us and taking such good care of us!

This year there were five bands performing in the streets of El Espinar, La Granja de San Ildefonso and Segovia for three days. Three of them were from different parts of Spain (Pamplona, Sevilla and El Espinar), one from Portugal and one from Slovenia.

All of the participating musicians were really good and played with one another in mixed jam sessions like they knew each other for ages.

The festival offered many opportunities for great photos and I think I shot at least a few good ones. Well I will let you be the judge of that.

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Wordless Wednesday: Streets of Urbino

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Two days in Urbino, Italy

After leaving Gubbio (you can read about our short visit in the previous post) quite a bit earlier that we would have liked, we soon entered the region of Marche and at the same time left Umbria behind.
By this time we were already heading back northeast - in the direction of Slovenia.

We were hoping for a bit of sunshine but the ride from Gubbio to Urbino was obviously not long enough for a change of weather. Not minding the weather too much, we parked our car relatively close to the city gate at the north-eastern part of the town walls.

The thing with these old fortified towns is that you can not always choose your point of entrance. Thick stone walls usually do not have all that many entrances. This is an obvious consequence of a defensive strategy that was vital in medieval times when most of these fortifications were built.

The obvious lack of space inside the old town is not the most convenient thing for a modern tourist, who would love to drive at least to the apartment door. Here we all had to park outside the walls and walk the narrow cobbled streets in rain. In my opinion this is a small price to pay for keeping the old charm alive.

After a slow, rainy stroll around the town we decided not to move on until the next day - that is if we found a suitable accommodation for the night. We were aiming towards some budget options and surprisingly a nice lady at the information office in the old town center provided a couple of options. Since we learned we could find accommodation for 60 Euros (that's for both of us), we decided to stay in Urbino. We opted for Albergo Ristorante San Giovanni. It is a small two star hotel where we got a nice double room with a bathroom for the mentioned price. It was nothing special but definitely clean, cosy and affordable. They also offer cheaper rooms but I guess those don't come with a private bathroom.

Spending the night in Urbino meant we could really relax that evening and even have a walk through the streets the following morning. We treated ourselves with a nice dinner. It was a bit on the expensive side but very tasty.

We also bought some local bread (it is called Focaccia Umbra) and goat cheese. This made for a perfect travel snack the next day. We also tasted a few different local cured meats. Simple but delicious!

Among the things worth visiting when in Urbino are definitely the Palace of the Dukes of Montefeltro (Palazzo Ducale) and the town's Duomo. They can be found next to each other in the main square. A walk to the top of the hill to Fortezza Albornoz is also worth the effort. It's position offers a great view of the town and surrounding hills.
On Via Raffaello, there is also the birthplace of town's most famous person - Raphael. The Casa Natale di Raffaello doesn't have much to offer - only one of his works is on display but you can see where Raphael and his father mixed their pigments.
If you are a plant enthusiast, there is also a small botanical garden nearby (Orto Botanico). It is full of rare plants.

Apart from the mentioned sights, we found Urbino a great place to wander around, drink a cup of a good coffee and take some time per guardare la gente che passa.

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Gubbio - Not destined for this trip

When we left Assisi (you can read about it here) sun was still shining and it was pretty warm. After a few kilometers on the road dark clouds started gathering above us. It was not long till it started raining. As the road gradually climbed higher into hills, weather got worse. At one time it was even snowing!
Even though snowflakes melted the moment they hit the ground, we were still surprised. We were definitely not expecting to see snow in central Italy in May.

When we got to Gubbio, it was cold and wet. We started a tour around the town despite the rain. We were hoping for the sun to break through those dark clouds. Unfortunately we had no such luck. After a half an hour of walking the streets of this otherwise charming old town, we were pretty wet and cold. Strong wind wasn't helping the atmosphere either.

After a quick debate we decided to give weather the last chance before moving on and headed for a drink into a local winery. The atmosphere was nice and we took it slow. The wine selection here was really awesome - unfortunately most of the bottles were way over our budget.
Another half an hour and a couple of glasses of moderately priced, but still good local wine later we were sick of waiting and decided to move on.

I suspect we would have liked this old town - perhaps even above others we visited on this trip. Sadly we didn't have enough time to wait for the weather to clear. We had a long way ahead of us and also had to find a place where we could spend the night.
Since I tried to look at the whole situation from a positive perspective, I could see this as a relatively good thing. An afternoon of bad weather drove us to a conclusion that we will definitely have to return to Gubbio when the first chance arises. Hopefully next time we will not be in such a hurry and the weather will treat us at least a bit better.

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Wordless Wednesday: A view of Assisi

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Assisi - the Town of Saints

Assisi is an old hill town just 19 km (i.e. 12 miles) east of Perugia. It is best known as the birthplace of St. Francis of Assisi - founder of the Franciscan order of monks in 1208. St. Assisi is also the patron saint of Italy.
Another famous saint is connected to this area - St. Clare, upon learning of St. Francis, left her affluent home and entered into monastic life. She established an order of nuns still in existence today -they are the Order of the Poor Clares.

The town itself is perched on a 400 meters high hill and looks charming even from the distance. When you enter through one of the gates built into an impressive wall, you can see a huge cathedral, impressive basilicas and there is even a convent. Basilica di San Francesco is filled with spectacular frescoes by Giotto and well worth a visit.

The thing I disliked about this town the most was how crowded it was. This is no wonder since 4-5 million visitors come hear every year. For many of them Assisi is a pilgrimage destination. Since the town is not very large (it only has around 3.000 inhabitants) it is definitely quite a challenge to make them all feel welcome.
I guess it is no surprise, the whole town looked like a one big souvenir shop to me.

Don't get me wrong - it is well worth a visit and one can definitely find some less frequented streets but I simply didn't feel it. The lack of time (only half of a day) could also be one of the reasons for not getting overwhelmed by this old town.

We would have probably liked the several less frequented sites outside of the city walls, but we never got to them (I guess that is why they are less frequented). We had the afternoon of the day reserved for another old town in the neighborhood - Gubbio. More about that in one of my next posts...

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Wordless Wednesday: Assisi main square

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Instagram - Sidebar plugin for your blog

If you are an iPhone or an Android phone user, you probably already know Instagram. If not, you really should get to know it now.
For quite some time this app was reserved for iPhone users only but when it also became available for Android it really got popular. Since lately it also has all the cool features on both platforms. Look for it on Google Play - it is free.

Below is a simple example of a photo with one of many available filters applied in Instagram. It is really easy to get great results with this tool.

It is one of my favorite mobile apps. Since it produces really great photos I thought of implementing it into Travel Photo Blogging for a while now. So when I found this SnapWidget that does just that, I simply had to fit it somewhere inside my sidebar.

It is easy to customize and I think it looks great. You can check it out in the bottom part of the right column of this blog under the title Our Instagram Feed.

You can also check out our Instagram feed on this link or search for us under the username travel_pb.

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Chocolate making class in Perugina

Even though Perugia is not the most impressive of the old towns in the region of Umbria it has something that is probably worth a trip on its own.
WARNING! All of you chocolate junkies out there, that might be on a diet at the moment, should be warned not to continue reading. Further reading might put your past achievements at a serious risk! You have been warned.

A visit to Perugina Chocolate factory (they make the famous Bacci chocolates) was on our travel list for quite some time. Who am I kidding here... this obviously was an item on M's list - I was just tagging along this time.

Let's start at the beginning... For quite some time M. was looking at various travel agencies that include a visit to this chocolate factory in their itineraries. Apart of this being a rather expensive way of doing it, those agencies usually also include things we don't fancy so much. If you have been following this blog you have probably noticed we are not the sheep type of tourists who enjoy the comfort of a large herd and love tagging along their trusty tour guide. We prefer tailoring our trips to our own needs and love the freedom of changing our itinerary on the go.
This was enough to decide we want to do this trip on our own.

In the research and preparation stage of this trip M. tried to reserve a spot in one of the available classes. Finding the contact on their homepage was not the most straightforward thing to do but that was nothing compared to communicating the whole thing with them in Italian. Luckily we do speak a little bit of Italian.
If you are also looking for a direct contact with them you can find the application form here. If Italian is not your thing, try translating it in Google Translate.

When M. tried to reserve her space behind a cooking stove, they informed her everything was already full. Since our plans were already set and some reservations confirmed by that time, we decided to go to Perugia anyway and try to fix things on the way.

We stayed at a nice and affordable hostel (Perugia Farmhouse) on the outskirts of Perugia. As the name suggests - it really still is a farmhouse. Soon after arrival we talked to the owner and he agreed to check out the situation at the chocolate factory in the morning. We weren't expecting much to come out of this, but we thought it couldn't hurt to try. We were thinking of going at least on a tour of the factory which also wasn't looking too good - it was low season at that time and not much was happening along the chocolate production lines. Things really weren't looking too good...

A phone call in the morning changed the whole thing - they told the guy from the hostel there is just one free space left in the first class that morning. As luck would have it - this was the one class M. preferred of the whole bunch. It was starting in a half an hour so we had to hurry. Luckily the Perugina factory is located relatively close to the hostel.

When we entered the factory we were led into a "classroom" designed especially for such chocolate making classes. Since M. has taken the last available spot we first confirmed our reservation directly with Maestro Alberto. He also agreed for me to go along as a photographer for free. How cool is that?

The class itself included everything from a bit of theory, chopping large chunks of chocolate, melting it, pouring it into plastic molds and filling them. Two kinds of filled chocolates were followed by chocolate truffles.

There was also a load of really useful practical advice given during the course. For instance: did you know temperature is essential when tempering chocolate? Only tempered chocolate will produce a finished product with a professional sheen, snap and taste - and your creations will not bloom when kept at the proper temperatures. When melting it, dark chocolate should reach 45°C (i.e. 113 F). Cooling it down to 31°C (i.e. 88 F) ensures forming of proper type crystals inside chocolate.

Before making a reservation you should take into account classes are only held in Italian (at least according to what I was told).
We would have managed to get a great deal out of this even in Italian, but got lucky again. Just next to us there was this US couple with their own interpreter. He agreed to help us out on a few technical terms and details. All in all - the whole thing worked out just great!

The class took over 3 and a half hours and we could take with us everything that was made. We could also keep all chocolate leftovers which were perfect for a chocolate fondue back home.

I think for 60 euro it was definitely a good value class. And that is only an opinion of an innocent bystander/photographer - M. was more then thrilled with the outcome.
She is still raving about it every time the topic pops up.

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Wordless Wednesday: Perugia in the distance

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Why visit Perugia?

On our trip around Italian region of Umbria started with a stop in the town of Perugia. It is interesting enough just as it is - one can wonder the narrow cobbled streets of this old Italian hill town for hours.

There is even a Mini Metro that will take you into the town center. You can for instance park your car at the city stadium for free and take the Mini Metro into the old town for just a few euros.

The charm of the old town inside the Etruscan walls is just one piece of its charm. Usually people can make the difference between a good and an excellent travel destination. It is no different in this case.

Perugia is the location where many world class events and festivals take place every year. It is well worth planning a trip with these in mind:

• Saint Ercolano's festival
• Saint Costanzo's festival
• Umbria Jazz Festival (this year also featuring Sting!)
• Umbria's Musical Festival
• Euro Chocolate Festival
• Fiera dei Morti (Fair of the Dead)
• ...and many more.

A visitor can get lots of useful information from the main tourist website dedicated not only to the town of Perugia itself, but also to many other nearby attractions worth the attention. If you are looking for exact dates of events mentioned above, PerugiaOnline.com is the information source of choice.
Besides these events the town has many other attractions (mostly historical) worth checking out.

However the main reason of our visit was a bit different. As you might already know Perugia is also the location of Perugina chocolate factory M. wanted to visit for quite some time.

You can expect a detailed report about a very interesting chocolate making class in one of the next posts.

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Wordless Wednesday: Chocolate moments in Perugia

For information about a Chocolate making class in Perugina, you can check out a related post on the link.

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Hill towns of Umbria and Marche

We have just returned from a short trip (4 days really is short) around Italian regions of Umbria and Marche. I am glad to say that despite the changing weather it was a great trip and definitely a place worth returning to.
These two regions are a little bit less known compared to the neighboring Tuscany. Fortunately this also means they tend to get a little less crowded.

During this time of year we were able to find budget accommodations for 45 EUR per night (for a double room with breakfast). You can easily find a decent double room in a two star hotel for 60 EUR per night but if you are on a tighter budget, you should do some research before the start of your trip.

Like Tuscany, Umbria is also a place where those green rolling hills seem to just go on forever in all directions. In my opinion charming little medieval towns sitting on tops of those hills are a highlight of the region.

It doesn't really matter if you are a history buff, outdoor enthusiast or you simply love good food and wine... you can definitely find all of those in these parts of Italy.
During this recent trip we tried to taste a little bit of everything. We even took part in a hands-on chocolate making course.

These are Umbrian towns we had on our list and you should definitely try to fit them into your schedule when visiting the region: Assisi, Perugia, Montefalco, Spoleto, Todi, Gubbio and Narni.
Since we suspected we were not going to make it to all of those, we only added Urbino and a small town on the Conero coast from the region of Marche. At the northern end of Marche region there is also a whole another country worth visiting - it is San Marino.

Sadly we did not make it to all of the charming hill towns on the above list. Since we did not want to jump between them in a hurry, we figured we would rather come back at some other time and devote each of them the attention they deserve.
I suggest you do the same and try to relax and really feel the energy flowing through those narrow cobblestone streets.

I will post some useful details from the places we actually got to visit in future posts. Stay tuned to Travel Photo Blogging!

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This is a sponsored post but as always, all opinions and enthusiasm are my own.

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Connecting Slovenian Salt-pans

Jogging has been gaining on popularity in the recent years. As a consequence there are more and more running events held every year all over the globe. Slovenia is no exception. I have been writing about one such event before - it is called Night's 10 and it is held annually in Bled, Slovenia.

Since Winter is not a very friendly season for sports like jogging in Slovenia everybody is in anticipation of Spring. This year temperatures have been quite high for a while now and quite a few running events were already held. These events can be a great motivation to get moving again and forget all about the cold winter.

We participated in one such event a few weeks ago. Connecting the salt-pans event (Povežimo soline) was held on the Slovenian coast on a beautiful, warm and sunny Sunday in March. It was amongst the first such events in 2012 in Slovenia and also a great beginning of running season for many participants.
As the name suggests the idea of the event is to connect two salt-pans on the Slovenian Adriatic coast by running from Sečovlje salt pans to Strunjan salt pans. The finish line was 9.5 kilometers away from the starting point. The route was mostly set on level terrain and even went through a tunnel.

This time I was not participating. I only offered my driving services to the other part of the team. Even though I had to wait for our running enthusiasts for almost 2 hours I was not bored for a moment. Beautiful surroundings offered great photo opportunities I was more then glad to seize. Even the church tower of the charming city of Piran was visible in the distance. Amongst other interesting sights there was also a group representing salt pan workers. They prepared a bag of freshly harvested local salt for every participant.

The atmosphere was very relaxed and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

If you are looking for an excuse to visit Slovenia, you can easily participate in one of many running events held throughout the country. Here is a list of this year's upcoming running events in Slovenia. The site is in Slovenian, but since it is basically a list of names, places and dates I think you will be able to get all the info you need.

The only thing you should keep in mind is the usual requirement to register in a particular event months before it actually takes place.

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Wordless Wednesday: Monte Pelmo in White

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How to choose the right accommodation in London?

Wherever you go, accommodation is usually one of the most important things that need to be arranged. Usually it pays off to make your reservations ahead of time or at least check out your options.

This is also true when travelling to large cities, especially in top season. London is no different and since this year it is the place of Summer Olympics, you should plan ahead if you wish to get a good accommodation for an acceptable price. The best ones are usually the first to fill up.

Luckily in cities like London there are a number of options to choose from. The best choice usually depends on the available budget and purpose of visit. However there are three things one should always keep in mind regardless the nature of visit: location, location and... location.

First and most usual option are many hotels and hostels you can choose from. In London you can stay in a budget hotel or hostel (a single bed in a large dormitory can be found for as low as £10 per night) or you can choose one of many luxury hotels, where you can easily spend thousands of pounds per night.

Another option worth considering is Couchsurfing. As a member of the Couchsurfing community you can sleep on another member's couch for free. This might be quite a gamble but on the other hand you can also get lucky and have a great time meeting some extra friendly people, that might also let you have a taste of the local scene with them.
If you are looking for a way to meet local people, this might just be the thing for you. It is however more suitable for people travelling alone - it is obviously harder to find someone ready to welcome a group of five friends in his apartment for a week, compared to a lonely traveler.

There are also agencies offering a thing in between the two options above. That's right - you can live in a luxury of a high end hotel and yet live like a local. They offer the chance to stay in private homes for the length of your visit.
onefinestay is a popular example of such an agency specialized in London area.

You can get yourself a really luxurious place for an affordable price. The service is called "the unhotel" - imagine the best hotel service without the marble lobby. They give you the chance to stay in someone's place while they're out of town. A chance to live someone's life for a few days and nights while the agency provides all the things you may need.

From the photos on their website it definitely looks worth checking out. However I have yet to try this thing out myself to see how it really works.

These vacation rentals from onefinestay are certainly worth considering if you are looking for an alternative to a hotel when in Central London.

If none of the options above seems like your cup of tea, you can do what I did during my last trip to London - stay at a friend's place. There are many reasons to go for this last option, but usually there are also some downsides to it.
In my case it meant ignoring the advice I emphasized above - I couldn't choose the location of my accommodation. This meant I had to sit on a train from Uxbridge to central London and back every day of my stay.
I didn't mind it - I got time to make plans on the train every morning... and I got to see Uxbridge. Not many London visitors can say the same!

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Skiing vacation in Italy

I am back from Italy again! A week in the Italian Dolomites shot by way too fast again (like every time before). This year we had a little bit of sunshine, a bit of snowfall and lots of cold - freezing cold actually.


All week long we were listening to almost apocalyptic news on Italian TV programs. It was all about the Costa Concordia disaster and weather problems throughout the country. Titles like "Italia blocata" were all too common. Actually we got quite lucky with the weather. Dolomites were a part of Italy with surprisingly the nicest weather for all week long.

Also those reports were usually quite exaggerated. By my standards anyway... Italians seem to do this a lot. For instance there was about 2 centimeters (1 inch) of snow in Rome and reports of total chaos were aired on the evening news.
I agree any snowfall is quite unusual in those parts and it can lead to substantial traffic problems, but a couple centimeters of snow during the night is no end of the world in my book. Me being from a place where snow is quite an usual sight every winter also didn't help me understand the "catastrophic proportions" of events.


All of that did not influence our skiing enthusiasm. Despite of a couple of days of snowing and being pretty cold all the time, everything was fine. Mostly it was around -10°C (that is 14°F) or colder.
A few days were really beautiful and sunny but cold nonetheless. Mostly we were skiing in the Civetta ski area. Only for one day we decided to try out some new slopes and drove to Kronplatz, which is supposedly the most modern of the Dolomiti ski areas. That is probably true - almost all of the lifts are new cabins - some even with heated seats. All that is unfortunately a strong magnet for the crowds. Kronplatz gets pretty crowded throughout the whole season.

I did about 50 kilometers (31 miles) of skiing per day - for six days in a row. I must admit there were quite a few warming-up stops every day in many of those charming mountain huts placed just next to the slopes. Mostly they are made of wood - roof tiles and gutters included, and fit into the surroundings perfectly. In some cases you could actually ski directly up to a bar and order something to help you warm up.


All that together with the breathtaking views of the Dolomites can make you quickly forget the cold and simply enjoy every moment of the experience.

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Venetian pizza in Italian Dolomites

Once you see some places they are simply impossible to forget. Venice is definitely one of them.

It is strange how a small thing can trigger memories of such places. The last time this happened to me was just a few weeks ago in a skiing resort deep in Italian Dolomites.
In my case it was a "Tronchetto Pizza" listed in a menu at a cute local trattoria/pizzeria. For those of you who don't know Venice all that well - Tronchetto is an artificial island in the Venetian lagoon and often a starting point for visitors to the city.


The pizza was actually shaped like a gondola and as delicious as it should be. Unfortunately I am not sure this is evident from the above photo. I guess you will just have to take my word for it.

The pizza brought back a lot of memories also because now is the most popular time to visit the city of Venice. It is Carnival time!
It actually officially started just a few days ago. This year (2012) it is scheduled to last from 11th to 21st of February so you can still make it if you hurry up.


I have published some useful advice for first time visitors on this blog before. If you are not interested in a good advice there are also some great photos (like the one above) worth checking out.
You can take a look at When to visit Venice, a post about Traditional Venetian masks, tips on how to do a cheap photo trip to Venice or simply click on the Venice label in the right column to check out everything I posted on this topic before.

Comments are more then welcome!

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Wordless Wednesday: Old-School Fireplace

The photo was taken at a charming traditional inn in Italian Dolomites (Trattoria Mezzo Canale Da Ninetta). Post-processing was done using an Android mobile application. I hope you like it!

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Mobile report from a ski day trip

This post is mostly about trying new things, so if you are curious what's new with me, you should keep reading.

Those of you who regularly follow this blog have probably noticed a lack of live reporting. Hopefully this has come to an end. Well, at least I can't blame the lack of technical equipment for not publishing live anymore.
Until just recently this excuse was OK due to an outdated mobile phone I had been using. Since it has started to show signs of mutiny I have been thinking about giving in and retiring it.
The same day I got a replacement, the old phone's charger went to phone heaven - talk about perfect timing... Lucky me, I guess.

So this is a test post using my new Android gadget from snow covered slopes of Slovenia. I know it is a bit late for ski season opening, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

I chose one of nearby Slovenian ski resorts for this event and since it was an ordinary work day, slopes were relatively empty.
The weather was nice and in the end it was a great day altogether. Check out the photo if you won't take my word for it.

With the ski season officially opened, it is now time to get ready for our annual ski holiday in Italian Dolomites. I can hardly wait!

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